The Prince

"The Prince"

Niccolo Machiavelli was born in the city of Florence, May 3, 1469. From writing such an excellent piece as "The Prince" he was born to a well known family but with little money left for his generation. He grew up middleclass but took the best of his education and delved deeply in the History of the Roman Republic. At the age of 25 the leading family in Italy, The Medici Family, was driven out of Florence after a century of controlling Politics. The Florentine Republic was then sat up. Four years later Machiavelli was elected Head of the Second Chancery which unofficially made him councilor to the head of the government. This role put him in the main European Politics for over fourteen years. But in 1512 Spain invaded Italy and dismantled the Florentine Republic. The Medici family took control and threw Machiavelli into prison where he was tortured for conspiracy against the Medici. He maintain his innocence and was pardoned. He was to stay under house arrest at his Villa seven miles from the city. For his last fifteen years of his life he work on many works such as The Art of War, Discourses of the First Ten Books of Titus Livy, and The Prince.

The Prince was written for two main purposes; To secure the future stability of Italy, mainly Florence, through unsentimental, pragmatic, and strategic statecraft. The other is to gain the trust of the Medici, to set himself back in public life and a chance at becoming a member of the government.

The novel "The Prince" is a handbook for a politician, young prince, or ruling king. It gives key details on different situations that either of the top three I mention could go threw. Machiavelli will make a statement like "How Many Kinds of States There Are and in What Ways Are The Acquired". With a statement like that he would do a brief explanation of the topic, he would then discuss the different paths one could take on a topic and then he would choose the best topic he felt, the reason for choosing the path and best way to approach it. The book is set up in chapters being every statement another chapter. It is more a advisor guide or even a rulebook then a novel.